- Publisher’s Request
Hey, everyone …
Every so often (and one really big time closer to the end of each year) I come to our readers to remind you that we’re a reader-supported publication. It’s not time for our year-end fundraiser and won’t be for several more months, but this is one of those “every so often” bits. PLEASE do one or both of the following things:
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Web: https://news.rationalreview.com
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- Tell your friends about us! The more readers we have, the better in every way … especially when it comes time to ask for money. Many hands make light work, etc. Send people you know our way at:
Thanks in advance, and after you’ve done those two things have a GREAT weekend!
Yours liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily -
- UK: Starmer faces calls to resign as regime admits ambassador to US failed vetting process
Source: CityNews Halifax [Canada]
“British Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced calls Thursday to resign after it emerged that Peter Mandelson was initially denied security clearance for the post of ambassador to the United States, which he was eventually fired from over his close links to the disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Following the revelation in the Guardian newspaper, the government said Starmer was not aware that the Foreign Office had overruled a security vetting process for Mandelson to become U.K. ambassador to Washington ‘until earlier this week.’ Starmer has previously insisted due process was followed in the appointment, and that Mandelson, who was fired in September 2025, had lied about the extent of his links to Epstein.” (04/16/26)
- American Heresy
Source: Antiwar.com
by Andrew P Napolitano“In 2008, Congress added Section 702 to FISA permitting warrantless surveillance of foreign persons who communicate with Americans. The FISA court interpreted 702 to permit warrantless surveillance of Americans to whom foreign persons had spoken, out to the sixth degree. Thus, if you call or email a hotel in Rome to book a room, you are subject to warrantless surveillance under 702. If you call your mom, she is subject. If she calls her sister, your aunt is subject to warrantless surveillance, and so forth to the sixth degree. Behold the monstrosity that FISA has wrought. Can the data gathered by this warrantless surveillance be used by the FBI for prosecution purposes, as an end run around the Fourth Amendment? Congress said yes. That’s the American heresy, as it directly defies the history, values and plain meaning of the Fourth Amendment.” (04/16/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/andrew-p-napolitano/2026/04/15/american-heresy
- Unfit to Govern: We Need a 25th Amendment for the American Police State
Source: CounterPunch
by John W Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead“[W]hat happens when the president appears unable to discharge the duties of his office in a rational, coherent, and responsible manner? In other words, what can we do when the president appears to be losing his mind? The Constitution provides a remedy. The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides a process by which the government continues to function should the president be unable to carry out his duties. … while the president may be unraveling in plain sight, the machinery of the American Police State continues to expand—quietly, relentlessly, and with bipartisan support. Surveillance is expanding. Policing is becoming more militarized. Power is becoming more centralized and less accountable. And unlike the presidency, there is no 25th Amendment for the police state. No mechanism to declare it unfit. No procedure to remove it. Or is there?” (04/16/26)
- Why Donald Trump’s Blockade on Iran Won’t Work
Source: Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland“The Trump administration believes that the US Navy will prevent Iran from earning revenue from oil exports, while allowing other nations’ shipments to pass through the strait, thus resuming the transport of oil, gas, fertilizer, and other important items for global markets. This surgical outcome, however, may be harder to achieve than it looks. … The IRGC organized its navy around a meticulously planned asymmetric model—that is, like guerrilla fighters on land, it employs hit-and-run tactics against commercial shipping using small, fast attack boats and missile boats. More than 60 percent of the fast attack boats have survived US and Israeli air strikes. These smaller boats emerge from concealed underground pens or from hiding places among civilian boats, making them difficult for satellite reconnaissance to detect. Also, the boats can lay sea mines much faster than the slow, dangerous process of finding and neutralizing them.” (04/16/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/04/16/why-donald-trumps-blockade-on-iran-wont-work/
- What (and How) Should Our Students Be Taught Today?
Source: Brownstone Institute
by Bert Olivier“Taken together, the seven liberal arts of the Trivium and Quadrivium formed the core undergraduate curriculum in medieval universities during the 12th and 13th centuries, serving as prerequisites for the study of philosophy and theology at a higher level. Considering that the Trivium was regarded as teaching students to master language and thought through the study of grammar, logic, and rhetoric – the ‘three ways’ of literary education – it may be seen as a powerful reminder to us today that unless one knows how to employ language at these three levels, it would be futile to proceed to a different, and higher, level of study, because an inadequate grasp of linguistic meaning, logical relations of validity, and the rhetorical nuances of speech would invalidate understanding at all further levels – even in computer science, where linguistic communication is as essential as in the humanities.” (04/16/26)
https://brownstone.org/articles/what-and-how-should-our-students-be-taught-today/
- The Price of a Canadian Education?
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“At a convention of Canadian Liberals, tech executive Patrick Pichette proposed that youngsters eager to escape Canada be charged a half-million dollars for what he apparently regards as a privilege, not a right. We must remind ourselves that the word ‘liberal,’ here, is used in its modern, anti-liberal sense: of the ideology of ever-increasing restraints on everybody. Very illiberal. Even if Pichette means Canadian dollars, that’s still $360,000 in real USD dollars. Hardly a ten-dollar processing fee. More like extortion. He rationalizes that the kids owe that much anyway thanks to Canada’s heavily subsidized education system.” (04/26/26)
- They Always Tell You Why The Empire Uses Violence, But Never Why Its Enemies Do
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“One common feature of western empire propaganda is that we are always given reasons for the empire’s violence, while the violence of those who resist the empire tends to be framed as happening for no reason at all. We’ve all been fed reasons for the US-Israeli war on Iran, and we all know what those reasons are. Even less-informed members of the western public will have heard something about the Iranians being a nuclear threat, having a tyrannical government, and maybe something about sponsoring terrorist groups. But the so-called ‘peaceful protesters’ who were killed in an uprising fomented and facilitated by the United States? They were killed for no reason, simply because the Iranian government is evil and hates dissent. … It is only by pure coincidence that this happened at the exact same time the US empire was making the decision to try to topple the Iranian government.” (04/16/26)
- Deaths from Despair: Is Globalization a Health Risk?
Source: The Daily Economy
by Donald J Boudreaux“Claims that NAFTA increased deaths among manufacturing workers overlook a key reality: most job loss stems from productivity gains, not trade.” (04/16/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/is-globalization-a-health-risk/
- The Battle for OpenAI’s Soul
Source: Wired
by Maxwell Zeff & Paresh Dave“In Musk v. Altman, a jury will soon determine whether OpenAI has strayed from its founding mission to ensure AGI benefits humanity. Here’s what to know.” (04/16/26)
- Ambition, Character, and Liberty
Source: Liberalism.org
by Tom G Palmer“Roman moralists mistrusted ambition, which they connected to bribery and flattery. The powerful men around President Donald Trump show the dangers of ambition in its classical sense.” (04/16/26)
- Hungary Defeated Authoritarianism and So Can We
Source: Waging Nonviolence
by Daniel Hunter“On Sunday night, the streets of Budapest were filled. Tens of thousands of Hungarians poured into the streets along the Danube River, singing folk songs and waving flags celebrating the end of Viktor Orbán’s rule. A young man named Mark Szekeres, his face painted with the colors of the Hungarian flag, told CBC News: ‘This election was about a clash of civilizations. Either you belong in a Western-type democracy or an Eastern-type dictatorship.’ For 16 years, Orbán controlled the country as the classic strongman. Orbán’s electoral defeat was sound—so much so that he conceded defeat before all the votes were counted. Péter Magyar’s Tisza Party captured more than 53% of the vote and approximately 136 of 199 parliamentary seats, a supermajority decisive enough to undo the constitution and other laws that Orbán rewrote. The turnout alone was a verdict: nearly 80% of all eligible voters.” (04/16/26)
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2026/04/lessons-from-playbook-defeated-viktor-orban-hungary/
- Free Speech Future, episode 2
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
“Regulating AI: Who decides?” (04/16/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/free-speech-future-episode-ii-regulating
- Rising, 04/16/26
Source: The Hill
“Gavin Newsom trashes California’s Dem choices for gov; could Republicans win?” (04/16/26)